4. THE RIGHT TO LIFE

4.1. The Key to the Other Rights

28. The affirmation of the dignity of every human being has as its immediate and fundamental consequence the fundamental right to life which is recognized in article 3 of the Declaration: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person". Human beings have this right from the very moment their existence begins, i.e., from the moment of conception and not only from birth.³⁴

29. From the first instant of his conception, man received his personal reality from God. The person has a dignity in his being that is innate: that is, both the person and his dignity are situated on the ontological plane. It does not matter what manifestations man may have during the course of his evolution; from the moment of his conception, he is always a person whose dignity must be recognized in every circumstance of his existential process.

30. First of all, man has the right to life, the fundamental key to all the other rights as an inviolable right that is guaranteed and protected in every situation, not only by State laws and policies, but also through a real culture of life, "for no offense against the right to life, against the dignity of any single person, is ever unimportant".³⁵ This is a right that is fundamental, in the strongest meaning of the term, because the other rights would lose their consistency through the lack of a subject and support. A distinction must be made between a fundamental right and its value and nobility. There are other rights that take on a greater height and nobility to the point that it is right and licit to give or risk one's life for them.